It will be an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome musical accompaniment to the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The Sex Pistols, the punk rock band famous for their anti-establishment antics, are to re-release their classic anthem God Save the Queen to coincide with the jubilee celebrations this summer.

The song, widely regarded as an attack on the monarchy with lyrics equating the Queen with a “fascist regime”, is expected to be released in the final week of May, in a bid to top the charts over the Diamond Jubilee weekend at the beginning of June.

The move means the single is likely to go head to head in the charts with a special Diamond Jubilee song to be written by the pop singer Gary Barlow and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, which will be performed at a concert for the Queen outside Buckingham Palace on June 4.

Originally released on May 27 1977, ahead of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, the single, which featured a defaced image of the Queen on the cover, sparked widespread controversy and was banned by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated commercial television and radio and independent radio.

Many major record chains also refused to stock the single, which featured the lyrics “God save the Queen/she aint no human being,” and “our figurehead/is not what she seems,” sung by the band’s front man, John Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten.

Despite being banned for sale from HMV and Woolworths, and being denied Radio 1 air time, the record sold more than 150,000 copies and reached number two in the charts, behind Rod Stewart’s I Don’t Want to Talk About It/The First Cut is the Deepest.

Speculation has persisted that God Save the Queen was the biggest-selling single at the time but was kept off the number one spot to avoid offending the Queen.

On June 7 1977, during the Silver Jubilee celebrations, The Sex Pistols performed the song aboard a boat named The Queen Elizabeth as it sailed down the Thames, past the Houses of Parliament, in a gesture mocking the Queen’s river procession that followed two days later.

When the boat docked, several members of the band and their entourage were arrested. The single was later described by a music critic as the “greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium”.

Earlier this year, The Sex Pistols signed a deal with Universal Music for the world rights, excluding North America, to the band’s back catalogue.

Their only album Never Mind the B******* Here’s the Sex Pistols which also features the singles Anarchy in the UK and Pretty Vacant will be re-released later this year to commemorate its 35th anniversary.

When it was first released in 1977, the band and their record label, Virgin, then owned by Sir Richard Branson, faced legal action over the allegedly “obscene” name of the album.

The case was dismissed after John Mortimer QC, defending the band, produced expert witnesses who successfully demonstrated that the word “b*******” was not obscene, but a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the album’s title, meant “nonsense”.

The Sex Pistols broke up in 1978 and the following year, Sid Vicious, a singer and bass guitarist with the band, died of a drugs overdose.

The remaining members including Lydon, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock, who Vicious replaced in early 1977, have reunited several times since, including in 2002, the year of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, when the band played a concert at Crystal Palace in London.

The band recently declined to take part in the London Olympics closing ceremony this summer.

Lydon will tour later this year with Public Image Ltd, a band he formed in 1978 and later re-formed in 2009 using the proceeds from his appearances in advertisements for Country Life butter.

Karen Simmonds of Universal, said: “To be given the opportunity to re-evaluate The Sex Pistols’ catalogue is every music lover’s dream. We’re looking forward to working with the band and celebrating their impact on worldwide culture.”

Sir Richard said: “That trip up the Thames 35 years ago was certainly memorable. There is no doubt the BBC and the chart people rigged it so that it didn’t go to number one. But I think even the Queen will smile this time round.”